Lt. Governor John Carney at Senator Harris McDowell’s wind farm hearings.

Last month, Lt. Governor John Carney announced that the State of Delaware and Babcock & Brown, the parent company of Bluewater Wind, had reached a deal that would make Delaware a regional hub for East Coast wind farm operations. AUDIO

Today, Carney announced an agreement with Bluewater Wind to “help develop a workforce training program” for wind farm workers:

Lt. Governor John Carney announced today that Bluewater Wind and its parent company, Babcock & Brown, have committed to partner with a two-year college, such as Delaware Technical & Community College, to develop a regional training program for wind turbine maintenance technicians, provided approval of the proposed wind farm project. Babcock & Brown’s commitment includes a $150,000 grant to help Del Tech develop this program, as well as significant contributions in the way of technical expertise.

“This is a great opportunity for our State and the many students who will benefit from such a training program,” said Lt. Governor John Carney. “The wind power industry is set to grow rapidly over the next few decades, and with Babcock & Brown’s previous commitment to locate their regional hub in Delaware, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of high-paying jobs will need to be filled. This partnership would create the skilled workforce here in Delaware that Babcock & Brown, as well as other companies in the industry, will need to meet their demand.”

Carney deserves some credit. The last big idea knocked around to bring new industry to the State was when Congressman Mike Castle wanted to make Delaware a biotech hub (an idea that went down in flames like the Hindenburg). Other than that, all you ever seem to hear about is expanding casino gambling, (Representative Vince Lofink is pushing for sports betting and roulette is coming to the casinos this fall).

This is really some innovative thinking, and it means jobs and job training…I like the idea of new jobs for the State that don’t require learning how to balance five whiskey sours on a tray….

The attending three out of six members of the Delaware Senate’s Energy and Transit Committee.

The ground rules were you had to be polite, you had five minutes, and you had to tell the committee what electric company you used at Thursday night’s Energy and Transit Committee hearing about the wind farm project that would sit 11.5 miles off of Rehoboth Beach’s shore. The Senate Chamber was standing room only, and three out of six of the committee members were in attendance. Some of the members of the General Assembly who showed up to listen to the proceedings were Representatives Gerald Hocker and John Kowalko, and Senator George Bunting.

Delmarva Power & Light President Gary Stockbridge was on hand for the Senate hearings and was glad that the public was getting a chance to comment. He’s also gotta be a little mad that a state government passed a law in 2006 telling his company who to buy power from, but state governments pass laws regulating business a lot.

(If you click on someone’s name, you’ll get their statement to the committee, or in the case of candidates or energy company representatives, the statement given to me outside of the hearings).

Governor Russ Peterson

This was the only night of hearings where the public could speak, and former Governor Russ Peterson was the first at the podium. He voiced his support for the project.

“Little states aren’t limited to doing little jobs, little states can do big jobs, too. That’s what our forefathers did when they made little Delaware the First State.” - former Governor Russ Peterson

Chad Tolman from the Sierra Club, Alan Muller from Green Delaware, bloggers Tom Noyes from Tommywonk and Nancy Willing from The Delaware Way, Lt. Governor John Carney, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Protack, Dave Walsh from the Delaware Building and Construction Trades Council which represents 22 trade unions, and Pat Gearity, a local lawyer, were among the many people who turned out to support the offshore wind farm project.

Lt. Governor John Carney was there to show support for the project. Earlier this month Carney helped negotiate a deal where Bluewater Wind would establish a hub in Delaware that would result in jobs for the state.

Among those voicing opposition to the project were Ed Ratledge from the University of Delaware, Bernadette Winston, a Wilmington Community Center Director, a representative from the Local 1238, which includes DP & L union workers, Charles Boncelet from the University of Delaware, and private citizen Tim Bond, who cited the “lack of fairness” in a process that, among other things, wouldn’t reopen bidding so Conectiv could bid a wind farm project, too.

Charles Boncelet from the University of Delaware was there to speak out against the project.

An out of state speaker, Barbara Hill, made a compelling statement in favor of offshore wind power. The organization that she represents, Clean Power Now, is the group fighting Senator Ted Kennedy in an attempt to make Cape Cod the site of the nation’s first offshore wind farm. Hill said that she would love the competition from Delaware to see who would be first in offshore wind.

One of the interesting things I learned during the hearings was that a nuclear power plant in the north east had to shut down during the drought this past summer because they didn’t have coolant water. I never knew that could happen. And probably my favorite moment was when Sussex Countian Hal Alpiar explained to the Committee how he had to regularly wipe the soot from around his home that sits “two miles as the crow flies,” from the Indian River Power Plant, a story I’ve heard a million times from county residents.

Some of the rhetorical questions brought up by speakers to the Committee were why the Senate needed to hold hearings when the PSC held extensive hearings over the same topic just last year, why there wasn’t more competition in the process, and why the Senate would stop a process that it mandated less than two years ago.

This body passed a law, this body implemented a law, and I call on this body to follow the law.” -Pat Gearity

After the hearing, I spoke with Jim Lanard from Bluewater Wind and he was very upbeat about the future of the wind farm project and was “moved” by all of the public support.

The next hearing will be Wednesday, February 13th at Legislative Hall, and speakers will include the Public Service Commission and the Public Advocate. If you’d like to tell the Energy and Transit Committee what you think, you can click HERE for a list of the members and how to reach them.

The intersection where an SUV collided with an ambulance.

I received an e-mail tonight from Judson Bennett and his Coastal Conservative Network that contains an all too familiar description of someone being hospitalized at Beebe Hospital in Lewes:

A friend of mine called me this a.m. and informed me that he had been hospitalized at Beebe yesterday, What was very interesting about the discussion I had with him was:
(a) for lack of any hospital rooms, he had been placed in a single room with six other patents;
(b) he noticed that other patients (not as fortunate as he) had been placed on stretchers up and down the corridors;
(c) a situation he thought Beebe was over-saturated with patients, lacked adequate in-patient facilities and, as well, was under-staffed.

Exactly. But let’s be honest, the problems go way beyond just overcrowding. Back in October, Dr. J. Ludwicki, a pediatrician who practices in Lewes and Milton, expressed his frustration over the way Sussex County newborns in distress sometimes wait 4 or more hours to get transfered to Christiana Hospital in New Castle County to receive critical life saving treatments. Most of the people I speak with in Sussex have no idea this situation even exists until something goes desperately wrong when someone around them gives birth.

As it stands now, if you have a baby in one of the County’s three hospitals and there’s a problem, you have to wait for the state’s only transport team, located at the Christiana Hospital, to come and take your baby to a higher level of emergency care. That would be either Kent General in Dover, a Level 2 facility, or Christiana, a Level 3 facility. The wait can take hours and hours….

And yes, the state has only one transport team. One. And that team could be in New Jersey transporting a baby when a baby with serious health issues is born here in Sussex. The team does have access to a helicopter, but a number of weather factors and the cost make the ambulance trip the more usual method.

Just last week I covered the terrible story of a Sussex County paramedic and two Millsboro EMTs who were stopped at an intersection off of Rt. 5 when their ambulance was hammered by an SUV. The SUV driver was dead at the scene. One of the EMTs, despite his injuries, dragged his damaged body to the side of the paramedic who had been ejected from the rear of the ambulance, and with the help of the other EMT, kept him alive until an ambulance arrived, then passed out.

Two members of the ambulance crew were in very serious condition and had to be flown to Christiana Hospital, the closest Level 1 trauma center, for critical lifesaving treatment. None of the hospitals in Sussex are over Level 3. Kent General in Dover is Level 2. It’s the same as the neonatal situation. Thankfully, the crew is home and on the mend.

And in Sussex we all know not to have a life threatening medical emergency on a Friday afternoon in August on the east side of the County. I can’t help wondering what effect the Townsend Village Centre, which will sit on one of the two main roads into Lewes, will have on the already stressed roadways around Beebe Hospital.

There’s a huge healthcare problem brewing in Sussex County, and something needs to be done about it now.

I’m sure we can totally trust companies to go by the honor system when it comes to reporting violations, after all, they always jump to comply with clean air regulations the state passes. (COUGH COUGH)

This is so…typical…for our ridiculously dysfunctional state:

In Delaware, home of some of the biggest air polluters in the country, the state’s air quality management program remains underfunded and understaffed, leaving the reporting of violations up to the companies doing the polluting.

Now, think about it, as citizens, our speed driving down Delaware’s roads is monitored (probably about 2 million times) more than the harmful toxins like mercury spewing from “some of the biggest air polluters in the country.”

Where does Senator Charles Copeland stand when it comes to the proposed wind farm that would sit off the coast of Rehoboth Beach? He’s been rumored to be one of the small cabal of legislators who have worked to scuttle the project, but I spoke with him yesterday and he was supportive of it, “I think that I’d like to see the wind farm go forward.”

Copeland, who touts a house equipped with solar panels, does have concerns about the wind farm project. We talked about the $6 a month cost for Delmarva Power customers being an average over 25 years, but he would like to know what the first year will look like, will it be another large rate spike for Delmarva Power customers? (I will work on getting the answer to this from Bluewater Wind). Other concerns are that it would be built 11.5 miles offshore and in Federal waters, and that only a small portion of Delaware energy users would pay for it:

“The entire state of Delaware…should all participate in the expense of building the wind farm since we’re all going to benefit from it.” AUDIO

I’ve talked to other legislators who don’t agree with spreading the cost to all Delaware energy users particularly the Delaware Electric Coop customers, since they didn’t experience the same rate spikes as Delmarva Power customers and because the Coop is non-profit. Copeland’s response to excluding the Coop customers was a quick, “Why not them?”

I asked the Senator if he felt the project satisfied the requirements of House Bill 6, and he pointed out that he was one of the few legislators that didn’t support the Bill. According to Copeland, “The pain of de-regulation had just been experienced,” and he didn’t like the way the Bill allowed the Public Service Commission to, “restrict retail competition.” He also points out that the project, sitting in Federal waters, isn’t “Delaware based.” Basically, Copeland feels that there are glitches that need to be fixed so the project can move forward. AUDIO

So why did the Public Service Commission approve a wind farm in Federal waters if it would be a problem? Copeland had no idea, but he was concerned that if the wind farm project was held up with legal actions, it could hurt our pursuit of other renewable energy sources. He also talked about how the wind project would, “cover the whole nut,” when it came to the State’s legal obligation to move towards renewables. AUDIO

What does Copeland see as the solution? How does the project move forward, and he brought up hearings that Senator Harris McDowell would be conducting where Delmarva Power and Bluewater Wind would present options, but, according to Copeland, “at the end of the day,” spreading the cost across more Delawareans and getting some Federal backing would be the key. AUDIO

Despite his concerns, Senator Copeland’s overall outlook on the wind farm project was positive, “I think it will be built.”

UPDATE: OK, I saw Senator Copeland again today, and he was happy to clarify his part in Russ Larson’s vote to table the wind farm project, (I ask him several different ways to make sure we’ve got clarity): 

“What I laid out were my issues, what Russ chose to do with those was ultimately his call. ” 

Then I asked the Senator if he would have advised Russ Larson to vote for the proposal:

“Not the way it was laid out because I don’t believe that 28% of Delaware households ought to be footing the bill for the largest capital project in the State of Delaware’s history….”   AUDIO  

 

Hang on to your hats, but Delmarva Power and Light is going to pass the costs of fighting the proposed wind farm onto it’s rate payers:

Delaware’s stalled effort to find home-grown sources of electricity will cost Delmarva Power ratepayers about $4.6 million.

Delmarva insists its $3.7 million share was money well-spent. Others contend it was spent in a way to discredit offshore wind power.

Delmarva spent the money on consultants and legal fees to address a legislative mandate to seek new in-state power sources, Delmarva spokesman Bill Yingling said. He offered no breakdown, and noted that the total is a preliminary estimate.

The costs do not include time spent by Delmarva staff on the issue or the costs of polling the public, Yingling said.

So they’ve hit their customers with a 59% increase, they’re fighting a clean source of energy for the state that would bring in a significant number of new jobs, and now they’re pouring salt on the wound by forcing their customers to pay for their attempt to kill a project that their customers, according to their own study, overwhelmingly support:

After exposure to a brief conceptual description of wind power, which communicated an increased cost (not specified) and long term commitment (also not specified), favorability experienced a statistically significant decrease (87% pre-concept versus 79% post-concept); however, remained high being somewhat or very favorable among three-fourths of customers. Read the survey they commissioned HERE.

Seventy-nine percent of their customers support the wind farm even after they explain it. Yeah, they’re really fighting for their customers.

(Thanks to Tommywonk, as usual, for bringing this to my attention and giving me a wicked case of heart burn).

Steve Forbes (left) meets most likely Delaware Republican candidate for Governor Alan Levin.

Of course Alan Levin was on hand for the annual Lincoln Day Dinner held by the Delaware Republican Party. When you’re running for Governor…well…um…when you’re probably running for Governor as a Republican, it’s a good place to be seen. And Levin was looking forward to a “great night.” AUDIO

Back in September, I interviewed Levin on the air and one of the questions he was asked was about energy. Levin indicated that he supported the proposed wind farm off the coast of Rehoboth Beach. In light of the new and bizarre developments with the General Assembly and the wind farm, I asked Levin if he was still a supporter of the project.

I think we need it (the wind farm) more than ever right now…In fact, I’d even like to do it with the State of Maryland on a regionalization basis and even increase the size of it out there because I think we and Maryland can do this together and really share in a lot of the benefits. AUDIO

Then I asked Levin straight out if he was running.

We’ll see, you know we’re working through some things and we’re having a great time. I’ve been going up and down the state and we’re working through it. AUDIO

But…most of the people at the event spoke about Levin like he was already declared. While talking to me about the condition of the Delaware Republican Party, it’s former Chairman, Basil Battaglia, had this to say:

We have a great candidate in Alan Levin, he’s an excellent person. AUDIO

Come on, Alan, you know you want to tell us….

Steve Forbes won the Delaware Republican Primary in 1996. .

“You know the old joke, when Bill Gates goes into a bar, the average net worth of a patron goes up 2 billion dollars,” quipped Steve Forbes in a speech he delivered to the Delaware Republican Party Saturday night at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner. And while other sites may have flashy video of his speech, all I have is AUDIO of it, and my own interview with Steve Forbes. (And yeah, I ask him if Rudy is broke).

Forbes spoke about his relationship to Rudy Guiliani’s presidential campaign, “I’m one of the co-chairs of his campaign and senior policy advisor and saw first hand what he did in New York City and was very impressed with the major things he did there.” AUDIO

I asked Forbes if Giuliani supported his idea of a flat tax for Americans and he told me a little about where Giuliani stands on taxation. “He’s a backer of radical simplification of the tax codes,” according to Forbes and he went on to say that Giuliani is “proposing the biggest tax cut in American history.” AUDIO

We talked about the race between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Forbes said the race would be a “fierce one,” but predicted that Obama would win South Carolina. AUDIO

And finally, is the Guiliani presidential campaign in financial trouble? Well, not according to Forbes, “No, they’re focusing resources on Florida…They have over $7 million on hand.” AUDIO

The background:

On April 6, 2006, House Bill 6 did something amazing, it passed the Delaware State House (34 - 4), and the Senate (15 - 4), and it was signed into law by the Governor, all on that day. The Bill was the General ASSembly’s reaction to a harsh rate spike for Delmarva Power and Light customers, and it started the process for Delaware’s first “cost-effective” utility:

To stabilize long-term pricing in the DP&L service territory, the Act provides for a request for proposals through a competitive process to build cost-effective merchant generation in the State, to be utilized to serve some of the load requirements of DP&L.

When the process was complete, the primary spot was filled by the country’s first off shore wind project, submitted by Bluewater Wind, with a back-up gas plant that would be built by either NRG Energy, (The company that bought the embattled Indian River Power Plant, Delaware’s worst polluter, from Delmarva Power and Light) or Conectiv, (Sister company to Delmarva Power and Light).

(Holy incest, Batman, could that be the reason why Delmarva Power and Light is fighting the wind project…it’s not being built by someone they’re in bed with? Hmmmm…and could that be why DP & L’s President, Gary Stockbridge, wanted to reopen the bidding process after Bluewater was chosen so other companies, like maybe Conectiv, could simply swipe Bluewater’s idea and propose their own wind farm?)

Delmarva Power and Light resisted negotiating, and at one point, the Delaware Public Service Commission deemed the project “not in the public interest” because of pricing issues. But on December 14th, after months of negotiations and Bluewater Wind cutting their price by digging into their profits, the Public Service Commission gave the project a thumbs up:

“Bluewater’s project is a cost-effective mechanism that takes control of Delaware’s energy needs and provides a price hedge against the unpredictable and volatile movement of the PJM market,” the staff wrote in the report.

But despite the PSC’s recommendation, on December 18th our General ASSembly, represented by Russ Larson, tabled the project, citing questions about which Delaware energy customers would pay for the project. HB 6 applied the cost to DP & L’s residential and small business customers, and the PSC could have, without the intervention of the legislature, spread those costs to Delmarva’s large business customers, too, significantly reducing the price.

The wrench in the works was thrown in by a handful of legislators, unknown until just this week, who questioned spreading the cost to all Delaware energy users, including Delaware Electric Cooperative customers. (Is this where I’m supposed to act stupid and think that this group of legislators were oblivious to this entire issue until the day before the final decision was going to be made? It was part of HB 6. Good grief).

So basically the Delaware General ASSembly, the body that passed HB 6 in one day because it was so important, is stalling the process over an issue that’s clearly spelled out in their own legislation, causing Delawareans who have followed the process to roll their eyes so much that the friction is causing the current warm spell.

The interview with Pete Schwartzkopf:

To gain some kind of insight into what happened, last week I spoke with Representative Pete Schwartzkopf, whose 14th District would be the most impacted by the project. Schwartzkopf supports the project, citing, among other things price stability:

“They can tell you on day one and they can tell you on day 3005 what you’re going to pay for power.”

And the creation of new jobs:

“A lot of jobs would be made, these are things that the leaders of our state should be looking at…” FULL AUDIO

With the proposed wind farm sitting 11.5 miles off the coast of Rehoboth Beach, I wondered what kind of feedback Representative Schwartzkopf was getting from his District:

“I only had one person contact me or give me any negative feedback on the wind farm location. They want the wind, they just didn’t want it off Rehoboth.” FULL AUDIO

A question I often hear from people when discussing the project is why are only DP & L residential and small business customers affected by it? Well, according to Representative Schwartzkopf, it’s partly because Delmarva’s customers were “thoroughly impacted with deregulation” and had to eat a 59% increase. AUDIO There’s also the obvious difference that DP & L is a for profit company while the Delaware Electric Cooperative, Delaware’s other main energy supplier, is non-profit and customer run, and as a non-profit, isn’t under the jurisdiction of the PSC.

Schwartzkopf sent an e-mail to the leadership expressing his disappointment at the project being tabled last month, and asking that they convene a meeting with the independent consultant:

I ask that you join me in requesting the House and Senate leadership to convene a meeting either jointly or separate and allow the independent consultant, not Bluewater Wind or Delmarva or the PSC, to address the many questions that we have followed by an explanation as to what happened leading up to the vote on 12/18/07. If Russ is voting on our behalf, then we need to be fully informed so that we can express our will on our leadership to represent us fairly.

Interestingly, Schwartzkopf told me that no one from the leadership ever asked him if he supported the project or not. The General ASSembly never had a vote on whether or not to table the project on December 18th.

Another issue we discussed was the cost of the project. Contrary to rumor, an extra charge on your bill for wind energy isn’t a given. According to Schwartzkopf, the numbers that we’re hearing attached to the monthly increases are based on, “Today’s prices for coal, and the worst case scenario for wind.” AUDIO

Until I spoke with the Representative, one of my main concerns was that the State would have to absorb the price of the project if it wasn’t completed. That’s not the case. Delawareans aren’t paying for the construction of the wind farm, and if, for any reason, the project is stopped before it’s completed, we won’t pay anything.

“This (the wind farm) is a win, win, win, win all the way around.” AUDIO

Finally, the 14th’s Representative has a message for supporters of the project, “Don’t give up.” AUDIO

We’ll keep you up to date on this issue as it unfolds…AGAIN.

I wanted to share this story that I read about a US soldier, a single man, who opened his heart to an Iraqi boy with cerebral palsy:

Capt. Scott Southworth knew he’d face violence, political strife and blistering heat when he was deployed to one of Baghdad’s most dangerous areas. But he didn’t expect Ala’a Eddeen.

Ala’a was 9 years old, strong of will but weak of body _ he suffered from cerebral palsy and weighed just 55 pounds. He lived among about 20 kids with physical or mental disabilities at the Mother Teresa orphanage, under the care of nuns who preserved this small oasis in a dangerous place.

On Sept. 6, 2003, halfway through his 13-month deployment, Southworth and his military police unit paid a visit to the orphanage. They played and chatted with the children; Southworth was talking with one little girl when Ala’a dragged his body to the soldier’s side. READ MORE HERE…